


Sleep in the Arm of a Lonesome Rock

by Minutia_R



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Family, Gen, Major Character Undeath, ToT: Monster Mash, Trick or Treat: Trick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-22 00:17:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12469224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Minutia_R/pseuds/Minutia_R
Summary: “You people can’t make me come with you!”Except, clearly, they could.





	Sleep in the Arm of a Lonesome Rock

**Author's Note:**

  * For [straightforwardly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/straightforwardly/gifts).



“You people can’t make me come with you!”

Except, clearly, they could. The big clumsy one didn’t even throw a punch, that was the most humiliating part. Just caught Lalli around the waist, threw him over his shoulder, and kept walking. Lalli kicked and twisted and beat his fists on the ugly brute’s back. It was like attacking a wall, and not one of the flimsy walls of some of those Silent World buildings. Biting only got him a mouthful of disgusting, unwashed fabric. In desperation, he reached for his knife, but it was trapped between his body and Mikkel’s. So that was that.

Up ahead, he could hear the loud one’s long, angry strides crunching through snow, first with the dull thud of frozen earth underneath, and finally hitting the crumbling, uneven surface of a road. Her walk was slightly lopsided, favoring her injured arm.

Behind him, Emil doggedly pushed the overloaded wheelbarrow. He caught Lalli’s eye and whispered something that might have been _Sorry._

Lalli growled and screwed his eyes shut. As if _sorry_ mattered at all. The spoiled, godless idiot didn’t _understand._

The really stupid one trudged along last of all. Lalli had shut out the sight of him, but not the hiss of air through the filter of his breath mask. Of all of them, he should have understood. As much as Lalli hated to admit it, he might have been able to do something to help. Find Onni, at least. Onni would know what to do. But Reynir didn’t understand anything, and there was no one anymore who could try to make him understand.

Maybe … maybe she had found her way on her own, without help. Maybe there was someone over there looking out for her, ready to guide her home. Maybe it would be okay. Maybe.

But probably not.

The trees fell behind, and they came out into an open space, the ruins of a bridge rising above in the distance. Sleet fell steadily, and Lalli’s hair hung dripping around his face as all the blood pooled in his head and made it buzz. Mikkel’s footsteps grew heavier, his breath more labored, but he didn’t slow, and Lalli resigned himself to the fact that he wouldn’t be setting him down any time soon. Big stubborn lump.

As the city got closer, Lalli became aware that his head wasn’t just fuzzy from being held upside-down and bounced around. The buzzing became groans and screeches, half-coherent words in unknown tongues, setting Lalli’s teeth on edge. Something big. It was still asleep, mostly, but it was waking with the westering sun, disturbed by the passing of human spirits. He was thinking of warning the others--would they even listen? Did he even care enough to try?--when another sound started, equally unearthly.

Singing.

The tune was one Lalli knew, the words ones he had never understood, though he could say them off by heart. Ancient words in a long-dead language. Slowly, the other voices quieted. Shrieks became grumbles and quiet snuffles, and then silence. The others trudged on, under the bridge, past the wind-blasted buildings, never knowing how close the danger had been.

Lalli should have been relieved. He was, a little. But not very.

She hadn’t found her way to the other side. She was still here. And she was following them.

By the time they made camp for the night, he knew it was too late to turn back. He couldn’t go through that giant-infested city by himself at night. Maybe if he could count on Tuuri’s protection--but maybe she would stay here with the others. Maybe she wouldn’t like what he meant to do, and would let him get eaten. Maybe she just wasn’t strong enough. He didn’t know.

Maybe even if he was back there, next to the cairn and the funeral tree, he wouldn’t be able to make her go away. She’d always managed to make him do what she wanted, not the other way around.

Maybe he didn’t want her to go away.

Reynir and Mikkel set up the tent while Emil started a fire, and then Mikkel warmed up his jugs of sludge. Sigrun sat with her rifle across her knees, glaring into all the shadows. The ghosts were gathered in a rusted-out car nearby. Lalli poked at his bowl of sludge whenever Mikkel looked his way--he didn’t want it, but he also didn’t want to see how Mikkel was going to try to make him eat it if he didn’t. Then it was time to sleep, and it turned out the tent was too small for all of them. Which Lalli could have told Emil when he’d picked it up, if he’d asked.

Well, no. He couldn’t have. But really, anybody should have been able to see it without being told.

This resulted in a lot of angry back-and-forth gibberish that made Lalli retreat further into his hood. In the end, Sigrun stayed outside the tent, still clutching her rifle. Lalli found himself wedged in between Reynir and his stupid hair and Mikkel’s bulk. He tried to squirm free, but Mikkel grabbed his jacket and hauled him back in. This time he did get a bite in, but it was more to register a protest than because he thought it would help. It didn’t.

Lalli couldn’t sleep like that, but he was too tired to stay awake either. He drifted off then jerked awake, feeling like things with too many legs were marching up and down his spine, over and over, unable to reach his haven or get any real rest. And then somehow dawn light was stabbing in through the fabric of the tent, and at some point without Lalli noticing Mikkel had gotten out to take a turn on watch and Sigrun was tucked in beside him instead. She took up less room, but on the other hand, she was pointier.

He dodged out of the way of a particularly sharp elbow, and she groaned and blinked awake. Her skin was hotter than Mikkel’s, too. That wasn’t Lalli’s problem. He wasn’t going to worry about it.

She slurred a couple of words at him. After a second, they resolved as, _You coming?_

He nodded. Maybe she would believe him. Maybe she wouldn’t. It was the truth, anyway. There wasn’t any point in anything else.

Breakfast was the same sludge, cold. Lalli risked pouring his out while Mikkel wasn’t looking. Emil saw, but he wouldn’t tell, probably. Then it was time to go. Sigrun had apparently decided to trust him, because she returned his rifle and let him take point. Smart of her. But not necessary. Even though they spent most of the day walking through a city, they weren’t in danger from anything worse than falling bricks. The voices of the trapped ones were soothed by the same song that Lalli had heard the day before. Today it wasn’t just voices. Lalli ignored the half-seen, maybe-human figure occasionally visible through the buildings, the soft glow out of the corner of his eye, and since he was leading, he hoped the others would too. But Sigrun once stopped in her tracks, nearly dropped her gun, and let loose a string of what even Lalli could tell were curses. And later, Mikkel had to haul Reynir back from dashing down an alleyway.

Towards sunset, they finally left the city behind. They made camp a little off the road, on a wide-open field near a frozen lake, with plenty of room to see anything that might be coming for them. Sigrun took first watch again, and Lalli had to doze uncomfortably stuck between Mikkel and Reynir. Then he was woken all the way when Sigrun crawled into the tent and Emil wriggled out. Mikkel was snoring, deep and even like a bear in hibernation. Reynir--well, Reynir wasn’t going to stop Lalli. He waited a few minutes until he was sure that Sigrun was asleep, and then he slipped out.

He only wanted to breathe clean air and enjoy no one touching him. But something was wrong. Emil should have stayed near the tent, standing guard. He wasn’t there.

Luckily, it wasn’t hard to see where he’d gone, even on an overcast night. His footprints were clear in the mixed sludge of mud and melted snow, leading down to the shore of the lake. The lullaby from Lalli’s childhood was clear, too, clearer than it had been yet. Lalli ran, skidding on the muck. Emil had already walked out four steps onto the lake’s surface. Five. He didn’t seem to hear the ice creaking under his feet, intent on what he was walking toward.

She was wearing her expedition uniform, her discarded breath mask slung around her neck. It might have been her, as she was, as she should have been. If she hadn’t appeared out of nowhere in the middle of a frozen lake. If she hadn’t been glowing faintly under cloudless skies. If it weren’t for that unearthly voice. If she hadn’t died.

You were never supposed to make noise in the dark outside the safe areas. But the only things that would hear him were ones that already knew they were there. Lalli called out to Emil.

Emil turned around, shouted back. Lalli heard _Tuuri_ and _mistake_ and _we have to--_

Emil’s foot went through the ice. He went down on one knee, hands scrabbling for purchase. Lalli ran, sliding on the ice, wishing he’d brought his rifle. He drew his knife instead. It was small, but it was steel. It might--

“Put that away, Lalli,” said Tuuri. “It’s annoying.”

“You can’t have him,” said Lalli.

“I wasn’t going to hurt him! I just wanted to talk. _You_ never want to talk, Lalli.”

Lalli didn’t answer, but he thought: the ice wouldn’t hold Emil, but it would probably hold him. He wasn’t big and clumsy. He didn’t want to talk, but he could just go over there and--

He clutched his knife tighter, and after a few more seconds her gaze broke first, and she shimmered and slipped away. Back under the ice, or somewhere. Emil blinked like he was waking from a dream, and Lalli pulled him out of the ice and back to the campsite, pushed him to sit down next to where he’d left his flamethrower. Then he stretched out on the ground by his feet. Now Emil wouldn’t be going anywhere stupid. He asked Lalli a few questions, or what sounded like questions, in a soft, puzzled voice. Lalli ignored them. And finally, finally, for the first time in days, he slept properly.

He woke up in his haven. Home. Safe. He couldn’t stay, though. He had things to do. So he went to the edge of the dream-sea, skipping and slipping over the rocks, looking for somewhere that should be nearby.

“Lalli!”

There he was. The really tall, really stupid one. His haven was weird, too, much too bright, no trees anywhere, full of ugly lumps of creatures. Somehow that didn’t surprise Lalli. “We need to go to Onni,” he said.

“Oh!” said Reynir. Then he looked down, rubbing the back of his neck. “I mean … I think you definitely should. But, uh, I don’t think--he doesn’t want to see me.”

Nobody ever wanted Reynir around. Since when did that stop him? “I can’t go by myself,” said Lalli. “You’ll have to take me.”

“You need my help?” Reynir’s face did an annoying thing where his eyes got really wide and brighter than the sun in his too-bright haven. Lalli snarled. He didn’t have to rub it in.

At least he didn’t make Lalli give him an answer in words, just grabbed his hand and started pulling him across the sea. Lalli would have objected to that too, but there wasn’t time.

It wasn’t that long until they reached a place ringed with birch trees. The trees were familiar, even if they were planted unnaturally close together. Reynir shifted from one foot to the other. “See, he did this last night when I--”

“Shh!” Lalli hissed at him. He could hear something--if he could just tell where it was coming from--

Up ahead. A place where the trees got thinner, where the shore sloped gently downward to the dream sea. And offshore on a rock jutting out of the depths, Tuuri, holding out her arms.

“Onni,” she said. Here, she wore red and her braids streamed down her back, but there was the same glow around her, the same unearthly sweetness in her voice. “I don’t want you to be alone.”

Onni couldn’t walk on the water. As he waded out, it lapped his knees, then his waist.

“Onni!” Reynir shouted, but Onni didn’t turn around.

Lalli didn’t want to do it. He wasn’t a baby. He could take care of himself, he always could, but he could already see the water churning around Onni and he knew what things lurked under it. “Don’t leave me!” he called.

Onni stopped. Looked from Tuuri to Lalli. His eyes were red.

“ _I_ don’t want to be alone,” said Tuuri.

“You--” Onni’s voice was thick. “You don’t have to be. Come with me; I’ll show you the way onward.”

“No!” said Tuuri. “I don’t want … I didn’t want to be trapped and lose myself. But I can’t go there. It’s cold and dark, and you sleep forever.”

Nobody said anything for a while. Even the sea hardly seemed to move. Then Onni’s shoulders slumped forward. “Okay.” Onni had never been able to make Tuuri do what he wanted either. He looked up at her, and his eyes looked like they were about to spill over, and his mouth was set in a straight line. “But don’t come near me or Lalli again.”

“Or the rest of the crew,” said Lalli.

Onni rounded on him. “Who cares what happens to them? They let her die!”

“What kind of excuse is that?” Lalli snapped back. “It’s my job to keep them safe!”

“Don’t fight!” Tuuri squeaked. “I promise, okay? I’ll stay away from you. And the crew.” Just before she dove beneath the water, she added, “I love you. Both. You know that, right?”

Reynir took one step out towards where she’d disappeared, Then he hurried over to Onni and fished him out of the water. Onni let Reynir help until he’d gotten back to shore, then he shook off Reynir’s hands, crossed his arms, and turned away.

“Okay,” said Reynir softly. “I’m going. But you two should talk. You need--”

Lalli glared at him. And for once--for once--he shut up.

When Lalli woke up, he was covered in Emil’s coat. Breakfast was cold sludge again.

There was no singing, no teasing glimpses of maybe-human forms when they started walking, although the trapped ones were still suspiciously quiet.

It was only later, as they got closer to the spot on the coast where Tuuri had said a ship would pick them up, that Lalli started to hear the singing again. It was a different song this time, not a lullaby but a cheerful song of the sea, and this one was in Finnish: _I live at the sea and die as well, who knows, and sleep in the arm of a lonesome rock …_

#

Hildur stared at the screen--was that a blip on the radar? Or were her tired eyes just playing tricks on her? It was gone now. Probably nothing, but she should mention it to the mage, just to be safe. Then she felt a tap on her shoulder and she took off her headset and looked up. It was Aron.

“My shift,” he said. “Go get some rest.”

Hildur left him the chair and the headset, stood up, stretched. She should sleep. Or--wasn’t there something she’d wanted to report to Katrín? A little fresh air would clear her head, she decided, and headed up to the deck instead. She leaned against the rail, letting the wind whip the hair out of her face. The sun was just coming up over the waves.

She should have been at home now. She’d been looking forward to a visit with her parents and little brother. Then an emergency message had come from the Nordic Council itself, and they’d had to change their course. Something about a mission gone wrong. Nobody knew quite what it was about.

Was that a song she was hearing? How odd. She couldn’t make out the words--they seemed to be in a foreign language--but it was lively and cheerful.

Oh well! Who cared about the delay? Wasn’t it better to live at sea anyway, and die there too, maybe? There was a girl sitting on a rock nearby, and she was really cute. She waved at Hildur, and Hildur waved back.

It would be really nice to meet her.

**Author's Note:**

> Tuuri promised to stay away from Lalli, Onni, and the crew, but she didn't say a word about the sailors on the ship that's coming to get them, did she? It could be that the crew's pickup won't be arriving _precisely_ as scheduled ....
> 
> Thank you to my betas, Elleth and Laufey. <3


End file.
